FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES
Vanderbilt 7 South Carolina 5
HOOVER, Ala. — Nick Christiani allowed just one run on five hits in 6.1 innings and Vanderbilt used two two-run homers to power past South Carolina 7-5 Friday afternoon at the SEC Tournament at Regions Park.
VU improved to 39-19 and eliminated the Gamecocks who fell to 38-21 on the year. The Commodores will face tourney nemesis Ole Miss tomorrow at 10 a.m. in the semifinal round and will have to beat the Rebels twice in order to advance to the conference championship game for the third straight year. It will mark the fourth time the two schools have met in the tourney since 2006.
Christiani improved to 6-3 on the year with four strikeouts and two walks. It was his longest outing in the three tourney appearances, besting the four innings he recorded against Tennessee a year ago today on May 23, 2007.
Vanderbilt Recap
South Carolina Recap
Alabama 13 Kentucky 4 (FINAL)
HOOVER, Ala. – Alabama eliminated No. 19 Kentucky in grand fashion with 13-4 elimination game victory in front of 11,519 partisan fans at Regions Park Friday night.
Sophomore left-hander Del Howell, making only his second career start, held the Wildcats to three runs and seven hits in a career high 6 2/3 innings as the Tide advanced to the SEC Tournament semi finals to face LSU at 1:30 p.m. (CDT) Saturday afternoon. Alabama must beat LSU twice to advance to Sunday’s SEC Championship Game. The Tigers enter the game with an NCAA-leading 18-game winning streak.
Alabama improves to 34-25 overall and snapped a four-game losing streak to Kentucky. UK swept the regular season series in March and won the SEC Tournament opener on Wednesday. Kentucky drops to 42-17 overall this season.
